But those were difficult times for Tobias. He hated having to face Atticus knowing he was the one who’d put him in that wheelchair. That terrible night seemed like a lifetime ago and yet he couldn’t escape it.

Instead of going to Maddox’s, he drove to The Daily Grind, a quaint redbrick coffee shop with black-and-gold lettering on the windows and comfortable leather chairs. Since Silver Springs didn’t allow chain stores within the city limits, there wasn’t a Starbucks in town or a McDonald’s or any other fast-food joint. There were only mom-and-pop establishments, and of the coffee shops, The Daily Grind was by far the most popular. It was always filled with hipsters typing away on laptops, and this afternoon was no exception.

Tobias figured he’d grab a cup of coffee and hang out for a bit, then go over to the school. He already spent a lot of time at New Horizons, often staying late to help out with football practice, teach the fundamentals of basketball to any students who were hanging around the courts—he’d gotten pretty good at the sport in prison—practice skating with the kids at the new ice rink or tutor those who were taking auto shop. He’d been put away before he could finish high school, so he didn’t have a traditional college education, but he’d taken advantage of whatever classes were offered in prison, and they’d made a decent mechanic out of him. He could fix almost any kind of vehicle and hoped to own his own repair shop one day.

After Tobias placed his order, someone stood up to leave, enabling him to snag a seat at a small corner table near a window that had a Christmas wreath hanging in the middle of it. The guy who’d just walked out had left his newspaper behind, which was lucky. Tobias wanted to check out the sports page and hadn’t thought to buy a paper on his way over, but before he could even turn to that section, he heard the barista call out a name that made him look up.

“Harper!”

He’d only ever heard of one Harper.

A quick glance at the faces around the counter confirmed it was Harper Devlin, the woman he’d noticed at the Eatery last night.

What were the chances that he’d run into her again, especially so soon?

She didn’t hear the barista. At least, she didn’t react when he called her name. Standing to one side, away from the line that snaked out the door, she stared off into space, obviously a million miles away.

That was when Tobias realized there was a song by Pulse playing on the sound system. He could hear Axel Devlin singing, “I will always love you.” Had he written those lyrics for her?

“Harper?” the barista called again.

Still no reaction. She was completely lost in thought.